History of Newspapers
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The modern
newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...
is a European invention. The oldest direct handwritten news sheets circulated widely in Venice as early as 1566. These weekly news sheets were full of information on wars and politics in Italy and Europe. The first printed newspapers were published weekly in Germany from 1609. Typically, they were heavily censored by the government and reported only foreign news and current prices. After the English government relaxed censorship in 1695, newspapers flourished in London and a few other cities including Boston and Philadelphia. By the 1830s, high-speed presses could print thousands of papers cheaply, allowing low daily costs.


16th century to 1800

Avvisi, or , were a mid-16th-century Venice phenomenon. They were issued weekly on single sheets and folded to form four pages. These publications reached a larger audience than handwritten news had in early Rome. Their format and appearance at regular intervals were two huge influences on the newspaper as we know it today. The idea of a weekly, handwritten newssheet went from Italy to Germany and then to Holland.


First newspapers

The term newspaper became common in the 17th century. However, in Germany, publications that we would today consider to be newspaper publications, were appearing as early as the 16th century. They were discernibly newspapers for the following reasons: they were printed, dated, appeared at regular and frequent publication intervals, and included a variety of news items (unlike single item news mentioned above). Early forms of news periodicals were the so-called ''
Messrelationen A Messrelation (IPA: /ˈmɛsʀɛlaˌt͡si̯oːn/, Early Modern German for 'trade fair report') was a print published in the 16th to 18th century for the book fairs in Frankfurt and Leipzig (the largest in Europe at their time) which reported news ...
'' ("trade fair reports") which were compiled twice a year for the large annual book fairs in
Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
and
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
, starting in the 1580s. Nevertheless, the German-language '' Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien'', printed from 1605 onwards by Johann Carolus in
Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label= Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label= Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the ...
, is commonly accepted to have been the first newspaper. The emergence of the new media branch was based on the spread of the printing press from which the publishing press derives its name. Historian Johannes Weber says, "At the same time, then, as the printing press in the physical, technological sense was invented, 'the press' in the extended sense of the word also entered the historical stage." Other early papers include the Dutch '' Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c.'', founded by
Caspar van Hilten Caspar van Hilten (bef. 1583 – c. 1623) was the editor and publisher of the first Dutch newspaper, the Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c., printed in Amsterdam from June 14, 1618. He had, in effect, been a press officer for the army of Mauric ...
in 1618. This
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
newspaper was the first periodical to appear in folio- rather than quarto-size.Stephens, Mitchell
NYU.edu
, "History of Newspapers", ''
Collier's Encyclopedia ''Collier's Encyclopedia'' is a discontinued general encyclopedia first published in 1949 by P. F. Collier and Son in the United States. With ''Encyclopedia Americana'' and ''Encyclopædia Britannica, Collier's Encyclopedia'' became one of the th ...
''
As a center of world trade, Amsterdam quickly became home to many foreign newspapers as well, that were originally styled in much the same way as Van Hilten's publication, sometimes even having a similar name. In 1618, the '' Wöchentliche Zeitung aus mancherley Orten'' (''Weekly news from many places'') began to appear in Gdańsk (the oldest newspaper in Poland and the region of the Baltic Sea). Despite the title, it appeared irregularly, sometimes even three times a week. The first English-language newspaper, ''Corrant out of Italy, Germany, etc.'', was published in Amsterdam in 1620. A year and a half later, was published in England by an "N.B." (generally thought to be either Nathaniel Butter or
Nicholas Bourne Nicholas Henry Bourne, Baron Bourne of Aberystwyth (born 1 January 1952) is a Conservative Party politician who served as Leader of the Welsh Conservative Party and Member of the Senedd for Mid and West Wales from August 1999 until May 201 ...
) and
Thomas Archer Thomas Archer (1668–1743) was an English Baroque architect, whose work is somewhat overshadowed by that of his contemporaries Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. His buildings are important as the only ones by an English Baroque archit ...
. The first newspaper in France was published in 1631, '' La Gazette'' (originally published as ''Gazette de France'').Wan-Press.org
, A Newspaper Timeline,
World Association of Newspapers The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization made up of 76 national newspaper associations, 12 news agencies, 10 regional press organisations, and many individual newspaper ...
The first newspaper in Portugal, '' A Gazeta da Restauração'', was published in 1641 in Lisbon. The first Spanish newspaper, Gaceta de Madrid, was published in 1661. '' Post- och Inrikes Tidningar'' (founded as ''Ordinari Post Tijdender'') was first published in Sweden in 1645, and is the oldest newspaper still in existence, though it now publishes solely online. '' Merkuriusz Polski Ordynaryjny'' was published in
Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula, Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland un ...
, Poland in 1661. The first successful English daily, '' The Daily Courant'', was published from 1702 to 1735. The first editor, for 10 days in March 1702, was Elizabeth Mallet, who for years had operated her late husband's printing business. News was highly selective and often propagandistic. Readers were eager for sensationalism, such as accounts of magic, public executions and disasters; this material did not pose a threat to the state, because it did not pose criticism of the state.


Dutch Republic

One of the most distinctive features of Dutch 'corantos' is their format. It was in corantos that the highly illustrated German title page was replaced with a heading on the upper first page of the publication: the masthead, common in today's periodicals. In line with this more sober
page layout In graphic design, page layout is the arrangement of visual elements on a page. It generally involves organizational principles of composition to achieve specific communication objectives. The high-level page layout involves deciding on the ...
, corantos show an optimal use of space for text. Dutch corantos had two text columns, which covered almost the whole page, unlike the previous German papers, which adopted a single text column with book-like margins. The more economical use of space is also reflected in the minimal indications of paragraphs and the absence of completely blank lines. Different messages were only highlighted with a heading in a slightly bigger type, which usually included the city or country from which the news had come down to the publisher. A final novel feature of the format of corantos was their size: they were the first newspapers to be issued in
folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
, instead of halfsheet. An example of a coranto in this format, besides the already mentioned ''Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c.'', is the '' Opregte Haarlemsche Courant''. This Haarlem-based newspaper was first published in 1656 by Abraham Casteleyn and his wife Margaretha van Bancken, and still exists today, albeit in a tabloid format, rather than in the original folio.


British newspapers

On 7 November 1665, The ''
London Gazette London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...
'' (at first called The ''Oxford Gazette'') began publication. It decisively changed the look of English news printing, echoing the coranto format of two columns, a clear title, and a clear date. It was published twice a week. Other English papers started to publish three times a week, and later the first daily papers emerged. The newspapers typically included short articles, ephemeral topics, some illustrations and service articles (classifieds). They were often written by multiple authors, although the authors' identities were often obscured. They began to contain some advertisements, and they did not yet include sections. Mass market papers emerged, including Sunday papers for workers to read in their leisure time. ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...
'' adopted new technologies and set the standards for other newspapers. This newspaper covered major wars, among other major events.


North America

In Boston in 1690, Benjamin Harris published '' Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick''. This is considered the first newspaper in the
American colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centur ...
even though only one edition was published before the paper was suppressed by the colonial officials, possibly due to censorship and control issues. It followed the two-column format and was a single sheet, printed on both sides. In 1704, the governor allowed '' The Boston News-Letter'', a weekly, to be published, and it became the first continuously published newspaper in the colonies. Soon after, weekly papers began publishing in New York and Philadelphia. The second English-language newspaper in the Americas was the ''
Weekly Jamaica Courant The ''Weekly Jamaica Courant'', published as ''The Weekly Jamaica Courant, with News Foreign and Domestick'', was the first newspaper published in colonial Jamaica and the West Indies, and the second regular newspaper in the British settlements ...
''. These early newspapers followed the British format and were usually four pages long. They mostly carried news from Britain and content depended on the editor's interests. In 1783, the '' Pennsylvania Evening Post'' became the first American daily. In 1751, John Bushell published the '' Halifax Gazette'', the first Canadian newspaper.


German states

Although printing had existed in China since at least 849 AD and the
printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
was invented there, Germany was the first country in Europe to adopt its use, and the first newspapers were produced there. However, Germany was divided into so many competing states that before unification in 1871, no newspaper played a dominant role. One example of this type of merchant was the 16th-century German financialist,
Fugger The House of Fugger () is a German upper bourgeois family that was historically a prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile bankers, and ven ...
. He not only received business news from his correspondents, but also sensationalist and gossip news as well. It is evident in the correspondence of Fugger with his network that fiction and fact were both significant parts of early news publications. 16th century Germany also saw subscription-based, handwritten news. Those who subscribed to these publications were generally low-level government officials and also merchants. They could not afford other types of news publications, but had enough money to pay for a subscription, which was still expensive for the time. In the 16th and 17th century, there appeared numerous printed news sheets summarizing accounts of battles, treaties, king, epidemics, and special events. In 1609, Johann Carolus published the first regular newspaper in Strassburg, comprising brief news bulletins. By the 1620s, numerous major cities had newspapers of 4 to 8 pages appearing at irregular intervals; all were strictly censored. The first daily newspaper appeared in 1660 in Leipzig. Prussia increasingly became the largest and most dominant of the German states, but it had weak newspapers that were kept under very tight control. Advertising was forbidden, and budgets were very small.


India

In 1766, a Dutch adventurer, William Bolts, proposed starting a newspaper for the English audience in
Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...
. He was deported by the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...
, before his plans could come to fruition. In January 1780, James Augustus Hicky published '' Hicky's Bengal Gazette'', the first newspaper in India. The size of that four-page newspaper was 12"x8". Hicky accused the members of the East India Company, including Governor General
Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first Governor-General ...
of corruption. In retaliation Hastings prohibited the post office from carrying ''Hicky's Bengal Gazette'', and later sued Hicky for libel. In November 1780, the ''
India Gazette ''The India Gazette; or, Calcutta Public Advertiser'' was an English language weekly newspaper published in Kolkata (then Calcutta), the capital of British India. It was the second newspaper printed in India. Founded by Bernard Messink and Pet ...
'' appeared; it supported the Company government.


Modern newspapers since 1800


Technology

In 1814 ''The Times'' acquired a printing press capable of making 1,100 impressions per hour. It was soon adapted to print on both sides of a page at once. This innovation made newspapers cheaper and thus available to a larger part of the population. In 1830, the first penny press newspaper came to the market: Lynde M. Walter's Boston '' Transcript''. Penny press papers cost about one-sixth the price of other newspapers and appealed to a wider audience.Bird, S. Elizabeth. ''For Enquiring Minds: A Cultural Study of Supermarket Tabloids''. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992: 12–17. Newspaper editors exchanged copies and freely reprinted material. By the late 1840s telegraph networks linked major and minor cities and permitted overnight news reporting. The invention of
wood pulp Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemical or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw ...
papermaking in the 1840s significantly reduced the cost of newsprint, having previously been made from rags. Increasing
literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in Writing, written form in some specific context of use. In other wo ...
in the 19th century also increased the size of newspapers' audiences.


News agencies

Only a few large newspapers could afford bureaus outside their home city. They relied instead on news agencies, founded around 1859, especially Havas in France and the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
in the U.S. Agenzia Stefani covered Italy. Former Havas employees founded
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...
in Britain and
Wolff Wolff is a variant of the Wolf surname which is derived from the baptismal names Wolfgang or Wolfram. List of people surnamed Wolff A * Albert Wolff (disambiguation), several people * Alex Wolff, American actor * Alexander Wolff, American writ ...
in Germany. Havas is now
Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. AFP has regional headquarters in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong and Washington, ...
(AFP). For international news, the agencies pooled their resources, so that Havas, for example, covered the French Empire, South America and the Balkans and shared the news with the other national agencies. In France the typical contract with Havas provided a provincial newspaper with 1800 lines of telegraphed text daily, for an annual subscription rate of 10,000 francs. Other agencies provided features and fiction for their subscribers. The major news agencies have always operated on a basic philosophy of providing a single objective news feed to all subscribers. For example, they do not provide separate feeds for conservative or liberal newspapers. Fenby explains the philosophy:


Britain

With literacy rising sharply, the rapidly growing demand for news, led to changes in the physical size, visual appeal, heavy use of war reporting, brisk writing style, and an omnipresent emphasis on speedy reporting thanks to the
telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
. London set the pace before 1870 but by the 1880s critics noted how London was echoing the emerging New York style of journalism. The new news writing style first spread to the provincial press through the ''Midland Daily Telegraph'' around 1900. By the early 19th century, there were 52 London papers and over 100 other titles. In 1802, and 1815 the tax on newspapers was increased to three pence and then four pence. Unable or unwilling to pay this fee, between 1831 and 1835 hundreds of untaxed newspapers made their appearance. The political tone of most of them was fiercely revolutionary. Their publishers were prosecuted but this failed to get rid of them. It was chiefly Milner Gibson and Richard Cobden who advocated the case in parliament to first reduce in 1836 and in 1855 totally repeal of the tax on newspapers. After the reduction of the stamp tax in 1836 from four pence to one penny, the circulation of English newspapers rose from 39,000,000 to 122,000,000 by 1854; a trend further exacerbated by technological improvements in rail transportation and telegraphic communication combined with growing literacy.


''The Times''

The paper began in 1785 and in 1788 was renamed ''The Times.'' In 1817, Thomas Barnes was appointed general editor; he was a political radical, a sharp critic of parliamentary hypocrisy and a champion of freedom of the press. Under Barnes and his successor in 1841, John Thadeus Delane, the influence of The Times rose to great heights, especially in politics and amongst the City of London. It spoke for reform. Peter Fraser and
Edward Sterling Edward Sterling (17731847) was a British journalist. Life He was the son of the Rev. Anthony Sterling, and was born at Waterford. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin. Called to the Irish Bar, he fought as a militia captain at the Battle ...
were two noted journalists, and gained for The Times the pompous/satirical nickname 'The Thunderer' (from "We thundered out the other day an article on social and political reform.") The paper was the first in the world to reach mass circulation due to its early adoption of the steam-driven rotary printing press. It was also the first properly national newspaper, as it was distributed via the new steam railways to rapidly growing concentrations of urban populations across the country. This helped ensure the profitability of the paper and its growing influence. ''The Times'' was the first newspaper to send war correspondents to cover wars.
W. H. Russell Sir William Howard Russell, (28 March 182011 February 1907) was an Irish reporter with '' The Times'', and is considered to have been one of the first modern war correspondents. He spent 22 months covering the Crimean War, including the Sie ...
, the paper's correspondent with the army in the
Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...
of the mid-1850s, wrote immensely influential dispatches; for the first time the public could read about the reality of warfare. In particular, on September 20, 1854, Russell wrote a missive about one battle that highlighted the surgeons' "humane barbarity" and the lack of ambulance care for wounded troops. Shocked and outraged, the public's backlash led to major reforms. The ''Times'' became famous for its influential leaders (editorials). For example, Robert Lowe wrote them between 1851 and 1868 on a wide range of economic topics such as free trade (which he favored). Allan Nevins, the historian of journalism, in 1959 analyzed the importance of ''The Times'' in shaping views:


Other main papers

The Manchester Guardian was founded in Manchester in 1821 by a group of non-conformist businessmen. Its most famous editor,
Charles Prestwich Scott Charles Prestwich Scott (26 October 1846 – 1 January 1932), usually cited as C. P. Scott, was a British journalist, publisher and politician. Born in Bath, Somerset, he was the editor of the ''Manchester Guardian'' (now '' the Guardian'') ...
, made the ''Guardian'' into a world-famous newspaper in the 1890s. ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'' began on June 29, 1855 and was bought by
Joseph Moses Levy Joseph Moses Levy (15 December 1812 – 12 October 1888) was a British newspaper editor and publisher. Biography Levy was born in London on 15 December 1812 to Moses Levy and Helena Moses. He was educated at Bruce Castle School, after which h ...
the next year. Levy produced it as the first penny newspaper in London. His son, Edward Lawson soon became editor, a post he held until 1885. It became a gauge of middle class opinion and could claim the largest circulation in the world in 1890. It backed the Liberal Party's mainstream views until opposing what became the party's decades-long Gladstonian, largely consensual foreign policy in 1878. It turned Unionist.


New Journalism of the 1890s

The New Journalism reached out not to the elite but to a popular audience. Especially influential was William Thomas Stead, a controversial journalist and editor who pioneered the art of investigative journalism. Stead's 'new journalism' paved the way for the modern
tabloid Tabloid may refer to: * Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism * Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size ** Chinese tabloid * Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size * Sopwith Tabloid The Sopwith Tabloid an ...
. He was influential in demonstrating how the press could be used to influence public opinion and government policy, and advocated "government by journalism". He was also well known for his reportage on child welfare, social legislation and reformation of England's criminal codes. Stead became assistant editor of the Liberal ''Pall Mall Gazette'' in 1880 where he set about revolutionizing a traditionally conservative newspaper "written by gentlemen for gentlemen". Over the next seven years Stead would develop what Matthew Arnold dubbed 'The New Journalism'. His innovations as editor of the ''Gazette'' included incorporating maps and diagrams into a newspaper for the first time, breaking up longer articles with eye-catching subheadings and blending his own opinions with those of the people he interviewed. He made a feature of the ''Pall Mall'' extras, and his enterprise and originality exercised a potent influence on contemporary journalism and politics. Stead introduced the interview, creating a new dimension in British journalism when he interviewed General Gordon in 1884. He originated the modern journalistic technique of creating a news event rather than just reporting it, with his most famous 'investigation', the Eliza Armstrong case. Arnold, a leading critic, declared in 1887 that the New Journalism, "is full of ability, novelty, variety, sensation, sympathy, generous instincts". However, he added, its "one great fault is that it is feather-brained".


Northcliffe's revolution

The turn of the century saw the rise of popular journalism. These are papers aimed at the lower to lower-middle income earners demoting minutely reasoned news and analysis, which remain the focus of party- or ideology-oriented newspapers. Instead the papers are inclusive by emphasis on sports, crime, sensationalism and gossip about celebrities.
Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the '' Daily Mail'' and the '' Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journ ...
(1865–1922) was the chief innovator. He used his ''
Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' and the ''
Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its Masthead (British publishing), masthead was simpl ...
'' to transform the media along the American model of " Yellow Journalism".
Lord Beaverbrook William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics o ...
said he was "the greatest figure who ever strode down Fleet Street". P. P. Catterall and
Colin Seymour-Ure Colin Knowlton Seymour-Ure (11 November 1938 – 18 November 2017) was professor of government at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He was a specialist in the history of political cartoons and caricature A caricature is a rendered image s ...
conclude that:


Interwar Britain

After the war, the major newspapers engaged in a large-scale circulation race. The political parties, which long had sponsored their own papers, could not keep up, and one after another their outlets were sold or closed down. Sales in the millions depended on popular stories, with a strong human interesting theme, as well as detailed sports reports with the latest scores. Serious news was a niche market and added very little to the circulation base. The niche was dominated by ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...
'' and, to a lesser extent, ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
.'' Consolidation was rampant, as local dailies were bought up and added to chains based in London. James Curran and
Jean Seaton Jean Seaton (born 6 March 1947) is Professor of Media History at the University of Westminster and the Official Historian of the BBC. She is the Director of the Orwell Prize and on the editorial board of '' Political Quarterly''. She is the wid ...
report: ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...
'' of London was long the most influential prestige newspaper, although far from having the largest circulation. It gave far more attention to serious political and cultural news. In 1922, John Jacob Astor (1886–1971), son of the 1st Viscount Astor (1849–1919), bought ''The Times'' from the Northcliffe estate. The paper advocated
appeasement Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governme ...
of Hitler's demands. Its editor Geoffrey Dawson was closely allied with Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeaseme ...
, and pushed hard for the
Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...
in 1938. Candid news reports by Norman Ebbut from Berlin that warned of warmongering were rewritten in London to support the appeasement policy. In March 1939, however, it reversed course and called for urgent war preparations.


Denmark

Danish news media date back to the 1540s, when handwritten fly sheets reported on the news. In 1666, Anders Bording, the father of Danish journalism, began a state paper. The royal privilege to bring out a newspaper was issued to Joachim Wielandt in 1720. University officials handled the censorship, but in 1770 Denmark became one of the first nations of the world to provide for press freedom; it ended in 1799. In 1834, the first liberal newspaper appeared, one that gave much more emphasis to actual news content rather than opinions. The newspapers championed the Revolution of 1848 in Denmark. The new constitution of 1849 liberated the Danish press. Newspapers flourished in the second half of the 19th century, usually tied to one or another political party or labor union. Modernization, bringing in new features and mechanical techniques, appeared after 1900. The total circulation was 500,000 daily in 1901, more than doubling to 1.2 million in 1925. The German occupation brought informal censorship; some offending newspaper buildings were simply blown up by the Nazis. During the war, the underground produced 550 newspapers—small, surreptitiously printed sheets that encouraged sabotage and resistance. Today Danish mass media and news programming are dominated by a few large corporations. In printed media JP/Politikens Hus and Berlingske Media, between them, control the largest newspapers '' Politiken'', '' Berlingske Tidende'' and '' Jyllands-Posten'' and major tabloids '' B.T.'' and '' Ekstra Bladet''. In the early 21st century, the 32 daily newspapers had a combined circulation of over 1 million. The largest was '' Jyllands-Posten'' (''JP'') with a circulation of 120,000. It gained international attention in 2005 by publishing cartoons critical of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Militant Muslims protested around the world, burning Denmark's embassies in Beirut and Damascus. There have been threats and attempted terrorist plots against the newspaper and its employees ever since.


France

In the
Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for " ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France {{disambig ...
there were a small number of heavily censored newspapers that needed a royal license to operate. The first newspaper was the ''
Gazette de France ''La Gazette'' (), originally ''Gazette de France'', was the first weekly magazine published in France. It was founded by Théophraste Renaudot and published its first edition on 30 May 1631. It progressively became the mouthpiece of one roy ...
'', established in 1632 by the king's physician Theophrastus Renaudot (1586–1653), with the patronage of Louis XIII. All newspapers were subject to prepublication censorship, and served as instruments of propaganda for the monarchy. Dissidents used satire and hidden meanings to spread their political criticism. Newspapers and pamphlets played role in The Enlightenment in France and they played a central role in stimulating and defining the Revolution. The meetings of the Estates-General in 1789 created an enormous demand for news, and over 130 newspapers appeared by the end of the year. The next decade saw 2000 newspapers founded, with 500 in Paris alone. Most lasted only a matter of weeks. Together they became the main communication medium, combined with the very large pamphlet literature. Newspapers were read aloud in taverns and clubs, and circulated hand to hand. The press saw its lofty role to be the advancement of civic
republicanism Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. ...
based on public service, and downplayed the liberal, individualistic goal of making a profit. In the Revolution the radicals were most active but the royalists flooded the country with their press the "Ami du Roi" (Friends of the King) until they were suppressed. Napoleon only allowed one newspaper in each department and four in Paris, all under tight control. In the revolutionary days of 1848 former Saint-Simoniennes founded a Club for the Emancipation of Women; in 1848 it changed its name to (Society for Women's Voice) in line with its new newspaper, ''La Voix des Femmes''. It was France's first feminist daily and proclaimed itself "a socialist and political journal, the organ of the interests of all women". It lasted for only a few weeks as did two other feminist newspapers; women occasionally contributed articles to the magazines, often under a pseudonym. The democratic political structure of France in 1870–1914 was supported by the proliferation of newspapers. The circulation of the daily press in Paris went from 1 million in 1870 to 5 million in 1910; it then leveled off and reached 6 million in 1939. Advertising grew rapidly, providing a steady financial basis. A new liberal press law of 1881 abandoned the restrictive practices that had been typical for a century. High-speed rotary
Hoe Hoe or HOE may refer to: * Hoe (food), a Korean dish of raw fish * Hoe (letter), a Georgian letter * Hoe (tool), a hand tool used in gardening and farming ** Hoe-farming, a term for primitive forms of agriculture * Backhoe, a piece of excavating ...
presses, introduced in the 1860s, facilitated quick turnaround time and cheaper publication. New types of popular newspapers, especially ''Le Petit Journal'' reached an audience more interested in diverse entertainment and gossip rather than hard news. It captured a quarter of the Parisian market, and forced the rest to lower their prices. The main dailies employed their own journalists who competed for news flashes. All newspapers relied upon the Agence Havas (now
Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. AFP has regional headquarters in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong and Washington, ...
), a telegraphic news service with a network of reporters and contracts with Reuters to provide world service. The staid old papers retained their loyal clientele because of their concentration on serious political issues. The Roman Catholic Assumptionist order revolutionized pressure group media by its national newspaper ''
La Croix La Croix primarily refers to: * ''La Croix'' (newspaper), a French Catholic newspaper * La Croix Sparkling Water, a beverage distributed by the National Beverage Corporation La Croix or Lacroix may also refer to: Places * Lacroix-Barrez, a munic ...
''. It vigorously advocated for traditional Catholicism while at the same time innovating with the most modern technology and distribution systems, with regional editions tailored to local taste. Secularists and Republicans recognize the newspaper as their greatest enemy, especially when it took the lead in attacking Dreyfus as a traitor and stirred up anti-Semitism. When Dreyfus was pardoned, the Radical government in 1900 closed down the entire Assumptionist order and its newspaper.


Corruption

Businesses and banks secretly paid certain newspapers to promote particular financial interests, and hide or cover up possible misbehavior. Publishers took payments for favorable notices in news articles of commercial products. Sometimes, a newspaper would blackmail a business by threatening to publish unfavorable information unless the business immediately started advertising in the paper. Foreign governments, especially Russia and Turkey, secretly paid the press hundreds of thousands of francs a year to guarantee favorable coverage of the bonds it was selling in Paris. When the real news was bad about Russia, as during its 1905 Revolution or during its war with Japan, it raised the bribes it paid to millions of francs. Each ministry in Paris had a group of journalists whom it secretly paid and fed stories. During the World War, newspapers became more of a propaganda agency on behalf of the war effort; there was little critical commentary. The press seldom reported the achievements of the Allies; instead they credited all the good news to the French army. In a word, the newspapers were not independent champions of the truth, but secretly paid advertisements for special interests and foreign governments.


First World War

The World War ended a golden era for the press. Their younger staff members were drafted and male replacements could not be found (women were not considered available) Rail transportation was rationed and less paper and ink came in, and fewer copies could be shipped out. Inflation raised the price of newsprint, which was always in short supply. The cover price went up, circulation fell and many of the 242 dailies published outside Paris closed down. The government set up the Interministerial Press Commission to closely supervise the press. A separate agency imposed tight censorship that led to blank spaces where news reports or editorials were disallowed. The dailies sometimes were limited to only two pages instead of the usual four, leading one satirical paper to try to report the war news in the same spirit:


Postwar stagnation

The Parisian newspapers were largely stagnant after 1914. The major postwar success story was ''Paris Soir''; which lacked any political agenda and was dedicated to providing a mix of sensational reporting to aid circulation, and serious articles to build prestige. By 1939, its circulation was over 1.7 million, double that of its nearest rival the tabloid ''Le Petit Parisien''. In addition to its daily paper ''Paris Soir'' sponsored a highly successful women's magazine ''Marie-Claire''. Another magazine ''Match'' was modeled after the photojournalism of the American magazine ''Life.'' France was a democratic society in the 1930s, but the people were kept in the dark about critical issues of foreign policy. The government tightly controlled all of the media to promulgate propaganda to support the government's foreign policy of
appeasement Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governme ...
to the aggressions of Italy and especially Nazi Germany. There were 253 daily newspapers, all owned separately. The five major national papers based in Paris were all under the control of special interests, especially right-wing political and business interests that supported appeasement. They were all venal, taking large secret subsidies to promote the policies of various special interests. Many leading journalists were secretly on the government payroll. The regional and local newspapers were heavily dependent on government advertising and published news and editorials to suit Paris. Most of the international news was distributed through the Havas agency, which was largely controlled by the government. The goal was to tranquilize public opinion, to give it little or nothing to work with, so as not to interfere with the policies of the national government. When serious crises emerged such as the Munich crisis of 1938, people were puzzled and mystified by what was going on. When war came in 1939, the French people had little understanding of the issues, and little correct information. They suspiciously distrusted the government, with the result that French morale in the face of the war with Germany was badly prepared. In 1942, the occupying German forces took control of all of the Parisian newspapers and operated them with collaborators. In 1944, the Free French liberated Paris, and seized control of all of the collaborationist newspapers. They turned the presses and operations over to new teams of editors and publishers, and provided financial support. Thus for example The previously high-prestige ''Le Temps'' was replaced by the new daily
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
. In the early 21st century, the best-selling daily was the regional ''
Ouest-France ''Ouest-France'' ( ; French for "West-France") is a daily French newspaper known for its emphasis on both local and national news. The paper is produced in 47 different editions covering events in different French départments within the rég ...
'' in 47 local editions, followed by '' Le Progres'' of Lyon, '' La Voix du Nord'' in Lille, and '' Provençal'' in Marseille. In Paris the Communists published '' l'Humanite'', while ''
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'' and '' Figaro'' had local rivals in ''
Le Parisien ''Le Parisien'' (; French for "The Parisian") is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, better known as LVMH. Histor ...
'' and the leftist ''
Libération ''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France' ...
''.


Germany

The Germans read more newspapers than anyone else. The most dramatic advance in quality came in 1780, with the ''
Neue Zürcher Zeitung The ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'' (''NZZ''; "New Journal of Zürich") is a Swiss, German-language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zürich. The paper was founded in 1780. It was described as having a reputation as a high-quality ...
'' in Zürich, Switzerland. It set a new standard in objective, in-depth treatment of serious news stories, combined with high-level editorials, and in-depth coverage of music in the theater, as well as an advertising section. Its standards were emulated by the ''
Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung ''Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' (often abbreviated to DAZ) was a German newspaper that appeared between 1861 and 1945. Until 1918 the title of the paper was ''Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung''. Although Wilhelm Liebknecht, one of the founders ...
'' (1861–1945) and the ''
Frankfurter Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Zeitung'' () was a German-language newspaper that appeared from 1856 to 1943. It emerged from a market letter that was published in Frankfurt. In Nazi Germany, it was considered the only mass publication not completely controll ...
'' (1856–1943), among others. Napoleon shut down existing German newspapers when he marched through, replacing them with his own, which echoed the official Parisian press. The upsurge of German nationalism after 1809 stimulated underground newspapers, calling for resistance to Napoleon. Johann Palm took the lead in Augsburg, but he was caught and executed. With the downfall of Napoleon, reactionaries came to power across Germany who had no tolerance for a free press. A repressive police system guaranteed that newspapers would not be criticizing the government. The
revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europe ...
saw the overnight emergence of a liberal press demanding new freedoms, new constitutions and a free press. Multiple parties formed, and each had its own newspaper network. ''Neue Rheinische Zeitung'' was the first socialist newspaper; it appeared in 1848–49, with
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
as editor. The Revolution of 1848 failed in Germany, the reactionaries returned to power, and many liberal and radical journalists fled the country. The ''Neue Preussische Zeitung'' (or '' Kreuz-Zeitung'') became the organ of the Junker East Elbian landowners, the Lutheran clergy, and influential civil and military officials who upheld the King of Prussia. It became the leading Prussian conservative newspaper. Its slogan was "With God for king and fatherland." Berlin, the capital of Prussia, had the reputation of being "the newspaper city" ("Zeitungstadt"); it published 32 dailies in 1862, along with 58 weekly newspapers. The main emphasis was not on news are reporting, but among commentary and political analysis. None of the newspapers, however, and none of their editors or journalists, was especially influential. However some were using their newspaper experience as a stepping stone to a political career. The audience was limited to about 5% of the adult men, chiefly from the upper and middle classes, who followed politics. Liberal papers outnumbered conservative ones by a wide margin. Bismarck's leadership in Prussia in the 1860s, and after 1871 in the German Empire, was highly controversial. His position on domestic policies was conservative or reactionary, and newspapers were mostly liberal; they attacked his defiance of the elected assembly. However, his success in wars against Denmark, Austria, and France made him highly popular, and his establishment of the German Empire was a dream come true for German nationalists. Bismarck kept a tight rein on the press. Bismarck never listened to public opinion, but he did try to shape it. He secretly subsidized newspapers, and the government gave financial help to small local papers, guaranteeing an overall favorable view. The press law of 1874 guaranteed press freedom, of a sort, but allowed for suppression if an issue contained "provocation to treason, incitement to violence, offense to the sovereign, or encouraged assistance of the government". Bismarck often used the code to threaten editors. The press law of 1878 suspended any newspaper advocating socialism – a club Bismarck used to suppress the rapidly growing socialist political movement. He also set up several official propaganda bureaus that distributed foreign and national news to local newspapers. The newspapers primarily featured lengthy discussions and editorials regarding political conditions. They also included a "Unter dem Strich" ("Below the line") section that featured short stories, poetry, critical reviews of new books, evaluations of art exhibits, and reports on musical concerts and new plays. An especially popular feature was a novel, serialized with a new chapter every week. In many ways more influential than the newspapers were the magazines, which proliferated after 1870. Eminent intellectuals favored this medium. By 1890, Berlin published over 600 weeklies, biweeklies, monthlies, and quarterlies, including scholarly journals that were essential reading for scientists everywhere.


20th century

When high-speed rotary presses became available, together with typesetting machinery, it became possible to have press runs in the hundreds of thousands, with frequent updates throughout the day. By 1912, there were 4000 newspapers, printing 5 to 6,000,000,000 copies of the year. New technology made illustrations more feasible, and photographs began appearing. Advertising was now an important feature. Nevertheless, all newspapers focused on their own city, and there was no national newspaper of the sort that flourished in Britain, nor chains owned by one company such as those becoming common in the United States. All the political parties relied heavily on their own newspapers to inform and rally their supporters. For example, there were 870 papers in 1912 pitched to conservative readers, 580 aimed at liberal elements, 480 aimed at the Roman Catholics of the Centre party, and 90 affiliated with the Socialist party. The first German newspaper aimed at a mass audience was the '' Berliner Morgenpost'', founded in 1898 by publisher Hermann Ullstein. It focused on local news, with very thorough coverage of its home city, ranging from the palaces to the tenements, along with lists of sporting events, streetcar schedules and shopping tips. By 1900, it reached 200,000 subscribers. A rival appeared in 1904, the '' BZ am Mittag'', with a flair for the spectacular and sensational in city life, especially fires, crime and criminals. During the First World War (1914–1918), Germany published several newspapers and magazines for the enemy areas it occupied. The ''Gazette des Ardennes'' was designed for French readers in Belgium and France, Francophone prisoners of war, and generally as a propaganda vehicle in neutral and even enemy countries. Editor Fritz H. Schnitzer had a relatively free hand, and he tried to enhance his credibility by factual information. He realized until the closing days of the war that it was necessary to produce an increasingly optimistic report to hide the weakening position of the Central Powers in the summer and fall of 1918. The Nazis (in power 1933–1945) exercised total control over the press under the direction of
Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the '' Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to ...
. He took control of the wire services and shut down 1000 of the 3000 newspapers, including all those operated by the socialist, communist, and Roman Catholic movements. The survivors received about two dozen press directives every week, which typically were followed very closely. In 1945, the occupying powers took over all newspapers in Germany and purged them of Nazi influence. Each of the four zones had one newspaper: ''
Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the '' Frankfurter ...
'' in Hamburg, the British zone; ''Die Neue Zeitung'' in Munich in the American zone; and ''Tägliche Rundschau'' (1945–1955) in East Berlin in the Soviet zone. By 1949, there were 170 licensed newspapers, but newsprint was strictly rationed, and circulation remains small. The American occupation headquarters, the Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS) began its own newspaper based in Munich, ''Die Neue Zeitung''. It was edited by German and Jewish émigrés who fled to the United States before the war, and reached a circulation of 1.6 million in 1946. Its mission was to encourage democracy by exposing Germans to how American culture operated. The paper was filled with details on American sports, politics, business, Hollywood, and fashions, as well as international affairs. In the early 21st century, 78% of the population regularly read one of Germany's 1200 newspapers, most of which are now online. The heavily illustrated tabloid ''
Bild ''Bild'' (or ''Bild-Zeitung'', ; ) is a German tabloid newspaper published by Axel Springer SE. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, its sister paper '' Bild am Sonntag'' ("''Bild on Sunday''") is published instead, which ...
'' had the largest circulation in Europe, at 2.5 million copies a day. It is published by Axel Springer AG, which has a chain of newspapers. Today, the conservative leaning ''
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...
(FAZ)'' has the highest reputation; its main competitors are the left-wing ''
Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. Hist ...
'' (Munich) and liberal-conservative ''
Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the '' Frankfurter ...
''. Influential weekly opinion papers include ''
Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History Th ...
'', and until it closed in 2010, ''
Rheinischer Merkur The ''Rheinischer Merkur'' (literally " Rhineland Mercury") was a nationwide conservative German weekly newspaper appearing on Thursdays. It was published in Bonn. Its managing director was Bert Günther Wegener, and the editor in chief from 1994 ...
''.


Italy

Between oppressive rulers, and a low rate of literacy, Italy had little in the way of a serious newspaper press for the 1840s. ''Gazzetta del Popolo'' (1848–1983) based in turn was the leading voice for an Italian unification. ''
La Stampa ''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy. History and profile The paper was fou ...
'' (1867–present) in Turin competes with ''
Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of I ...
'' of Milan for primacy in Italian journalism, in terms of circulation numbers and depth of coverage. It was a strong supporter of Prime Minister
Giovanni Giolitti Giovanni Giolitti (; 27 October 1842 – 17 July 1928) was an Italian statesman. He was the Prime Minister of Italy five times between 1892 and 1921. After Benito Mussolini, he is the second-longest serving Prime Minister in Italian history. A p ...
, who was denounced daily by ''Corriere della Sera''. The major newspapers were served by Agenzia Stefani (1853–1945). It was a
News agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswir ...
that collected news and feature items, and distributed them to subscribing newspapers by telegraph or by mail. It had exchange agreements with
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...
in London and Havas in Paris, and provided a steady flow of domestic and international news and features. The series of crises and confrontations between the papacy and the kingdom of Italy in the 1870s focused especially on the question of who would control Rome, and what place the pope would have in the new Kingdom. A network of pro-papal newspapers in Italy vigorously supported papal rights and help mobilize the Catholic element.


20th century

In 1901, Alberto Bergamini, editor of Rome's '' Il Giornale d'Italia'' created the "la Terza Pagina" ("Third Page"), featuring essays in literature, philosophy, criticism, the arts, and politics. It was quickly emulated by the upscale press. The most important newspaper was the liberal ''
Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of I ...
'', founded in Milan in 1876. It reached a circulation of over 1 million under editor and co-owner Luigi Albertini (1900–1925). Albertini deliberately modeled his paper after the ''Times'' of London, where he had worked briefly. He commissioned leading liberal intellectuals to write essays. Albertini was a strong opponent of Socialism, of clericalism, and of Prime Minister
Giovanni Giolitti Giovanni Giolitti (; 27 October 1842 – 17 July 1928) was an Italian statesman. He was the Prime Minister of Italy five times between 1892 and 1921. After Benito Mussolini, he is the second-longest serving Prime Minister in Italian history. A p ...
who was willing to compromise with those forces and corrupt Italian politics. Albertini's opposition to the Fascist regime forced the other co-owners to oust him in 1925. Mussolini was a former editor; his Fascist regime (1922–1943) took full control of the media in 1925. Opposition Journalists were physically maltreated; two thirds of the dailies were shut down. An underground press was developed, using smuggled material. All the major papers had been mouthpieces for a political party; now all parties save one were abolished, and the newspapers all became its mouthpiece. In 1924, the fascists took control of Agenzia Stefani, and enlarged its scope and mission to make it their tool to control the news content in all of Italy's newspapers. By 1939, it operated 32 bureaus inside Italy and 16 abroad, with 261 correspondents in Italy and 65 abroad. Every day they processed over 1200 dispatches, from which Italian newspapers made up their news pages.


Korea


Latin America

British influence extended globally through its colonies and its informal business relationships with merchants in major cities. They needed up-to-date market and political information. ''El Seminario Republicano'' was the first non-official newspaper; it appeared in Chile in 1813. ''
El Mercurio ''El Mercurio'' (known online as ''El Mercurio On-Line'', ''EMOL'') is a Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Santiago edition is considered the country's newspaper of record and it is considered the oldest daily in ...
'' was founded in Valparaiso, Chile, in 1827. The most influential newspaper in Peru, '' El Comercio'', first appeared in 1839. The ''Jornal do Commercio'' was established in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1827. Much later Argentina founded its newspapers in Buenos Aires: '' La Prensa'' in 1869 and ''
La Nación ''La Nación'' () is an Argentine daily newspaper. As the country's leading conservative newspaper, ''La Nación''s main competitor is the more liberal '' Clarín''. It is regarded as a newspaper of record for Argentina. Its motto is: "''La N ...
'' in 1870.


United States


Asia


China

In
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
, early government-produced news sheets, called tipao, were commonly used among court officials during the late
Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...
(2nd and 3rd centuries AD). Between 713 and 734, the '' Kaiyuan Za Bao'' ("Bulletin of the Court") of the
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
published government news; it was handwritten on silk and read by government officials. In 1582, privately published news sheets appeared in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
, during the late
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
. Timothy Brook, '' The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China'' (1998) Page xxi. From the late 19th century until 1949 the international community at Shanghai and Hong Kong sponsored a lively foreign language press that covered business and political news. Leaders included ''
North China Daily News The ''North China Daily News'' (in Chinese: ''Zilin Xibao''), was an English-language newspaper in Shanghai, China, called the most influential foreign newspaper of its time. History The paper was founded as the weekly ''North-China Herald'' ( ...
'', '' Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury'', and for Germans, ''
Der Ostasiatischer Lloyd ''Der Ostasiatische Lloyd'' (OAL) was a German language newspaper published in Shanghai, China. It served as the oldest German language newspaper in China. German communities in China and Southeast Asia read the newspaper.French83 It was co ...
'', and ''
Deutsche Shanghai Zeitung The ''Deutsche Shanghai Zeitung'' (DSZ), later ''Der Ostasiatische Lloyd'', was a German language newspaper published in Shanghai, China. That publication was associated with the Nazi Party. History The newspaper was established on 27 September 1 ...
''. Before 1872, government gazettes printed occasional announcements by officials. In Shanghai English businessman Ernest Major (1841–1908) established the first Chinese language newspaper in 1872. His '' Shen Bao'' employed Chinese editors and journalists and purchased stories by Chinese writers; it also published letters from readers. Serialized novels were popular with readers and kept them loyal; to the paper. Shanghai's large and powerful International Settlement stimulated the growth of a public sphere of Chinese men of affairs who paid close attention to political and economic developments. Shanghai became China's media capital. ''Shen Bao'' was the most important Chinese-language newspaper until 1905 and was still important until the communists came to power 1949. ''Shen bao'' and other major newspapers saw public opinion as the driving force of historical change, of the sort that would bring progress reason and modernity to China. The editors portrayed public opinion as the final arbiter of justice for government officials. Thereby they broadened the public sphere to include the readership. The encouragement of the formation of public opinion stimulated activism and form the basis for popular support for the 1911 revolution. Chinese newspaper journalism was modernized in the 1920s according to international standards, thanks to the influence of the
New Culture Movement The New Culture Movement () was a movement in China in the 1910s and 1920s that criticized classical Chinese ideas and promoted a new Chinese culture based upon progressive, modern and western ideals like democracy and science. Arising out of ...
. The roles of journalist and editor were professionalized and became prestigious careers. The Ta Kung Pao expanded audiences with its impartial reporting on public affairs. The business side gained importance and with a greater emphasis on advertising and commercial news, the main papers, especially in Shanghai, moved away from the advocacy journalism that characterized the 1911 revolutionary period. Outside the main centers the nationalism promoted in metropolitan dailies was not as distinctive as localism and culturalism. Today China has two news agencies, the
Xinhua News Agency Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...
and the
China News Service China News Service (CNS; ) is the second largest state news agency in China, after Xinhua News Agency. China News Service was formerly run by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, which was absorbed into the United Front Work Department of the ...
(''Zhongguo Xinwenshe''). Xinhua was the major source of news and photographs for central and local newspapers. In 2002, there were 2100 newspapers, compared to only 400 in 1980. The party's newspapers ''
People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...
'' and ''Guangming Daily'', along with the Army's '' PLA Daily'', had the largest circulation. Local papers focused on local news are popular. In 1981, the English-language ''
China Daily ''China Daily'' () is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Overview ''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in China. ...
'' began publication. It printed international news and sports from the major foreign wire services as well as interesting domestic news and feature articles.


India

Robert Knight (1825–1890), founded two English language daily papers, '' The Statesman'' in Calcutta, and ''
The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest s ...
'' in Bombay. In 1860, he bought out the Indian shareholders, merged with rival ''Bombay Standard'', and started India's first news agency. It wired news dispatches to papers across India and became the Indian agent for
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...
news service. In 1861, he changed the name from the Bombay ''Times and Standard'' to ''The Times of India''. Knight fought for a press free of prior restraint or intimidation, frequently resisting the attempts by governments, business interests, and cultural spokesmen and led the paper to national prominence. Knight's papers promoted Indian self-rule and often criticized the policies of the
British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...
. By 1890, the company employed more than 800 people and had a sizeable circulation in India and the British Empire.


Japan

Japanese newspapers began in the 17th century as ''yomiuri'' (読売、literally "to read and sell") or ''kawaraban'' (瓦版, literally "tile-block
printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...
" referring to the use of
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...
printing blocks), which were printed handbills sold in major cities to commemorate major social gatherings or events. The first modern newspaper was the ''Japan Herald'' published bi-weekly in Yokohama by the Englishman A. W. Hansard from 1861. In 1862, the Tokugawa shogunate began publishing the ''Kampan batabiya shinbun'', a translated edition of a widely distributed Dutch newspaper. These two papers were published for foreigners, and contained only foreign news. The first Japanese daily newspaper that covered foreign ''and'' domestic news was the '' Yokohama Mainichi Shinbun'' (横浜市毎日新聞), first published in 1871. The papers became organs of the political parties. The early readers of these newspapers mostly came from the ranks of the
samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They ...
class. ''Koshinbun'' were more plebeian, popular newspapers that contained local news, human interest stories, and light fiction. Examples of ''koshinbun'' were the ''
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...
nichinichi shinbun'', the predecessor of the present day ''Mainichi shinbun'', which began in 1872; the ''Yomiuri shinbun'', which began in 1874; and the ''Asahi shinbun'', which began in 1879. They soon became the dominant form. In the democratic era of the 1910s to the 1920s, the government tried to suppress newspapers such as the ''Asahi shinbun'' for their critical stance against government bureaucracy that favored protecting citizens' rights and
constitutional democracy Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into ...
. In the period of growing militarism in the 1930s to 1945, newspapers faced intense government censorship and control. After Japan's defeat, strict censorship of the press continued as the American occupiers used government control in order to inculcate democratic and anti-communist values. In 1951, the American occupiers finally returned freedom of the press to Japan, which is the situation today.William James Coughlin, ''Conquered press: the MacArthur era in Japanese journalism'' (1952)


See also

*
Decline of newspapers The decline of newspapers is an example and means of which to understand and observe the changing values of a culture. Whether newspapers are declining in popularity is region dependent. Data supports that in the U.S and Europe popularity and sa ...
*
Newspaper hawker A newspaper hawker, newsboy or newsie is a street vendor of newspapers without a fixed newsstand. Related jobs included paperboy, delivering newspapers to subscribers, and news butcher, selling papers on trains. Adults who sold newspapers from ...
and newsboys who sold or delivered papers *
History of American journalism Journalism in the United States began as a "humble" affair and became a political force in the campaign for American independence. Following independence, the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed freedom of the press and freedom of ...
* History of British newspapers * History of French journalism *
History of German journalism The history of German journalism dates to the 16th century. Germany invented printing, and produced its first newspapers in the 16th century. However, Germany was divided into so many competing states that before unification in 1871, no newspaper ...
* History of Journalism


Notes and references


Further reading

* * Merrill, John Calhoun and Harold A. Fisher. ''The world's great dailies: profiles of fifty newspapers'' (1980) 400 pages; Updated edition of Merrill, ''The elite press; great newspapers of the world'' (1968), which profiled 40 newspapers * Pettegree, Andrew. ''The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know about Itself'' (Yale University Press, 2014), covers Europe 1400 to 1800 * Smith, Anthony. ''The Newspaper: An International History'' (1979), 192pp; well illustrated * Starr, Paul. ''The Creation of the Media: Political origins of Modern Communications'' (2004), far ranging history of all forms of media in 19th and 20th century US and Europe; Pulitzer priz
excerpt and text search
* Stephens, Mitchell. ''A History of News'' (3rd ed. 2006) * Sterling, Christopher H., ed. ''Encyclopedia of Journalism'' (6 vol. 2009
table of contents


Asia

* Hill, David T. ''Journalism and Politics in Indonesia: A Critical Biography of Mochtar Lubis (1922–2004) as Editor and Author'' (2010) * Hopkinson, Belinda, ed. ''Information technologies for newspaper publishing in Asia and the Pacific'' (UNESCO No. 46. 1997) * Jeffrey, Robin. "India's Newspaper Revolution: Capitalism, Politics and the Indian." ''Language Press'' (2000) 1#9 pp: 77–9. * Mittler, Barbara. ''A newspaper for China?: power, identity, and change in Shanghai's news media, 1872–1912'' (Harvard Univ Asia Center, Vol. 226, 2004) * Reed, Christopher A. ''Gutenberg in Shanghai: Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876–1937'' (2004) * Yu, Haiqing. ''Media and cultural transformation in China'' (Routledge, 2009)


Europe

* Bösch, Frank. ''Mass Media and Historical Change: Germany in International Perspective, 1400 and till today that is Present'' (Berghahn, 2015). 212 pp
online review
* * * McReynolds, Louise. ''The News under Russia's Old Regime: The Development of a Mass-Circulation Press'' (1991) * Olson, Kenneth E. ''The history makers: The press of Europe from its beginnings through 1965'' (LSU Press, 1966), Covers 24 countries; detailed bibliography * Schulte, Henry F. ''The Spanish Press 1470–1966'' (1968)


France

* Blackburn, George M. "Paris Newspapers and the American Civil War." ''Illinois Historical Journal'' (1991): 177–193. in JSTOR * Botein Stephen, Jack R. Censer and Ritvo Harriet. "The Periodical Press in Eighteenth-Century English and French Society: A Cross-Cultural Approach", ''Comparative Studies in Society and History,'' 23 (1981), 464–90. * Censer, Jack Richard. ''Press and politics in pre-revolutionary France'' (Univ of California Press, 1987) * Chalaby, Jean K. "Twenty years of contrast: The French and British press during the inter-war period." ''European Journal of Sociology'' 37.01 (1996): 143–159. 1919–39 * Chalaby, Jean K. "Journalism as an Anglo-American Invention A Comparison of the Development of French and Anglo-American Journalism, 1830s–1920s." ''European Journal of Communication'' (1996) 11#3 pp: 303–326. * Collins, Irene. ''The government and the newspaper press in France, 1814–1881'' (Oxford University Press, 1959) * Collins, Ross F., and E. M. Palmegiano, eds. ''The Rise of Western Journalism 1815–1914: Essays on the Press in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain and the United States'' (2007), Chapter on France by Ross Collins * Cragin, Thomas J. "The Failings of Popular News Censorship in Nineteenth-Century France." ''Book History'' 4.1 (2001): 49–80

* Edelstein, Melvin. "La Feuille villageoise, the Revolutionary Press, and the Question of Rural Political Participation." ''French Historical Studies'' (1971): 175–203
in JSTOR
* Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. ''Grub Street Abroad: Aspects of the French Cosmopolitan Press from the Age of Louis XIV to the French Revolution'' (1992) * Eisendrath, Charles R. "Politics and Journalism—French Connection." ''Columbia Journalism Review'' 18.1 (1979): 58–61 * Freiberg, J. W. ''The French press: class, state, and ideology'' (Praeger Publishers, 1981) * Goldstein, Robert Justin. "Fighting French Censorship, 1815–1881." ''French Review'' (1998): 785–796
in JSTOR
* Gough, Hugh. ''The newspaper press in the French Revolution'' (Taylor & Francis, 1988) * Isser, Natalie. ''The Second Empire and the Press: A Study of Government-Inspired Brochures on French Foreign Policy in Their Propaganda Milieu'' (Springer, 1974) * Kerr, David S. ''Caricature and French Political Culture 1830–1848: Charles Philipon and the Illustrated Press'' (Oxford University Press, 2000) * Thogmartin, Clyde. ''The national daily press of France'' (Birmingham Alabama: Summa Publications, Inc., 1998), 370pp * Trinkle, Dennis A. ''The Napoleonic press: the public sphere and oppositionary journalism'' (Edwin Mellen Pr, 2002) * Weigle, Clifford. "The Paris Press from 1920 to 1940" ''Journalism Quarterly'' (1941) 18: 376–84. * Weigle, Clifford. "The Rise and Fall of the Havas News Agency" ''Journalism Quarterly'' (1942) 19:277–86 * Williams, Roger Lawrence. ''Henri Rochefort, prince of the gutter press'' (Scribner, 1966) * Zeldin, Theodore ''France: 1848–1945'' (1977) vol 2. ch 11, "Newspapers and corruption" pp 492–573 * Zerner, Elisabeth H. "Rumors in Paris Newspapers," ''Public Opinion Quarterly'' (1946) 10#3 pp. 382–39
in JSTOR
In summer 1945


Britain

*Andrews, Alexander. ''A History of British journalism''(2011) *Barker, Hannah. ''Newspapers and English Society 1695–1855'' (2000
excerpt
*Brake, Laurel, and Marysa Demoor, eds. ''Dictionary of nineteenth-century journalism in Great Britain and Ireland'' (Academia Press, 2009) *Clarke, Bob. ''From Grub Street to Fleet Street: An Illustrated History of English Newspapers to 1899'' (2004)
excerpt and text search
*Conboy, Martin. ''Journalism in Britain: A Historical Introduction'' (2010) *George, Curran. ''Newspaper History from the Seventeenth Century to the Present'' (1978) *Herd, Harold. ''The March of Journalism: The Story of the British Press from 1622 to the Present Day'' 1952
online
*O'Malley, Tom. "History, Historians and of the Writing of Print and Newspaper History in the UK c. 1945–1962," ''Media History'' (Special Issue: The Historiography of the Media in the United Kingdom) (2012) 18#3–4, DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2012.723492 *Sommerville, C. John. ''The News Revolution in England: Cultural Dynamics of Daily Information'' (1996) *Williams, Keith. ''The English Newspaper: An Illustrated History to 1900'' (1977) *Williams, Kevin. ''Read All About it: a History of the British Newspaper ''(2010)


Canada

*Kesterton, W.H. ''A History of Journalism in Canada'' (1979)


United States

* Daly, Christopher B. ''Covering America: A Narrative History of a Nation's Journalism'' (2012
excerpt and text search
* Emery, Michael, Edwin Emery, and Nancy L. Roberts. ''The Press and America: An Interpretive History of the Mass Media'' (9th ed. 1999.), standard textbook; *Mott, Frank Luther. ''American Journalism A History: 1690–1960'' (1962) * Nord, David Paul. ''Communities of Journalism: A History of American Newspapers and Their Readers'' (2006
excerpt and text search
* Schudson, Michael. ''Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers.'' (1978)
excerpt and text search
* Sloan, W. David, James G. Stovall, and James D. Startt. ''The Media in America: A History,'' 4th ed. (1999) * Streitmatter, Rodger. ''Mightier Than the Sword: How the News Media Have Shaped American History'' (199
online edition
* Vaughn, Stephen L., ed. '' Encyclopedia of American Journalism'' (2007) 636 page
excerpt and text search


Readership

* Heyd, Uriel. ''Reading Newspapers: Press and Public in Eighteenth-Century Britain and America'' (Oxford, 2012) * Schoenbach, Klaus, et al. "Research Note: Distinction and Integration Sociodemographic Determinants of Newspaper Reading in the USA and Germany, 1974–96." ''European Journal of Communication'' (1999) 14#2 pp: 225–239.


Historiography

* Buxton, William J., and Catherine McKercher. "Newspapers, magazines and journalism in Canada: Towards a critical historiography." ''Acadiensis'' (1988) 28#1 pp. 103–12
in JSTORalso online
* Daly, Chris. "The Historiography of Journalism History: Part 1:'An Overview.'." ''American Journalism'' 26 (2009): 141–147; "The Historiography of Journalism History: Part 2: 'Toward a New Theory,'" ''American Journalism,'' (2009) 26#1 pp 148–155, stresses the tension between the imperative form of business model and the dominating culture of news * Dooley, Brendan. "From Literary Criticism to Systems Theory in Early Modern Journalism History," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' (1990) 51#3 pp 461–86. * Espejo, Carmen. "European Communication Networks in the Early Modern Age: A new framework of interpretation for the birth of journalism," ''Media History'' (2011) 17#2 pp 189–202 * Griffen-Foley, Bridget. "Australian press, radio and television historiography: an update." ''Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy'' 119 (2006) pp: 21+ *Nevins, Allan. "American Journalism and Its Historical Treatment," ''Journalism Quarterly'' (1959) 36#4 pp 411–2
online
* Wilke, Jürgen
''Journalism''
European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2013, retrieved: January 28, 2013.


Primary sources

* Brennen,Bonnie S. and Hanno Hardt, eds. ''The American Journalism History Reader'' (2010), 512pp


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Newspapers
Newspapers A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...
Magazine publishing Newspaper publishing